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45 CHRISTMAS 
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CHARLES ED^VARD 
JEFFEKSON 



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BOOKS BY DR. JEFFERSON 

The Character of Jesus 

Doctrine and Deed 

The Minister as Prophet 

The New Crusade 

Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers 

Quiet Talks with Earnest People 

Things Fundamental 

My Father's Business 



Christmas Builders 

Faith and Life 

The Old Year and the New 

The World's Christmas Tree 



THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

New York 




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Cfcstmos 

BY 

CHARLES EDWARD 

JEFFERSON 

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COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1909 X^ V "^ D 



J31 



D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON 



CIA 2447B6 
AUJ 13 1909 



THERE was trouble in the land, 
all on account of Christmas. Men 
stood bewildered and women were dis- 
trafted, not knowing what to do. The 
trouble was that Christmas had become 
too small. Once there was room enough 
in it and to spare. Only a few of the 
inhabitants of the earth brought their 
treasures into it. But little by little the 
world learned of the beauty of Christ- 
mas until everybody, almost, wanted 
to get into it, and not only into it him- 
self, but he wanted to bring all his re- 
latives and friends, every one of them 
laden with packages and bundles, un- 
til at last Christmas became crowded 
to suffocation. There was not room to 
turn round. Everybody was so huddled 
and jostled, and there was so much 

CO 



Christmas l5uilDet0 

scrambling and pushing, that some peo- 
ple quite lost their temper, and even in 
the palace of Christmas looked sour. 

It seems strange that the world 
should be embarrassed and really in- 
jured by a desire of people to be lov- 
ing and to manifest their love by giv- 
ing gifts, and yet that is the very thing 
vv^hich happened. Christmas became a 
breeder and disseminator of dark and 
ugly feelings. It is w^ell enough w^hen 
only a few people make up their mind 
to be affeftionate and generous; but 
when everybody decides to put on the 
Christmas graces on the same day of 
the year, the world cannot stand the 
strain of so much goodness all at once 
expressed, and the result is a tragedy 
almost as deep and dark for many 
hearts as if there were no Christmas 
at all. For in their eagerness to keep 

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Ct)ri0tma0 TBuilDers 

Christmas, men forgot the claims of 
brotherhood. They were so zealous to 
get into the enchanted palace them- 
selves that they forgot all about their 
neighbors, who wanted to get in also. 
One cannot very well manufacture 
gifts himself, and therefore some one 
else must make them. One cannot 
carry gifts himself, — at least not all 
of them, — and therefore some one 
else must carry them. As Christmas 
was just a day and as it came only 
once a year, all the days preceding 
Christmas became frenzied and fever- 
ish, and men and women by the thou- 
sands were compelled to work so fast 
and through such long hours that they 
were not able to reach the palace at 
all. They had their faces in the direc- 
tion of it, but they were all so jaded 
and out of breath that when the palace 

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Cfttistmas TBuilDets 

came in sight they had not energy 
sufficient to enjoy the beauty of it, and 
could only look on half dazed and be- 
numbed at the more fortunate mortals 
who had been able to get inside of its 
golden doors. 

Letter-carriers, knowing by experi- 
ence what Christmas really was, be- 
gan to lament long before the month 
of December came, seeing in their im- 
agination the huge bundles of letters 
and papers and packages which must 
be carried up the crowded roadway 
of the days which led to the Christ- 
mas palace. Expressmen also never 
spoke enthusiastically of Christmas, 
but scowled at the mere mention of it, 
as though it were a prison instead of a 
palace, a sort of punishment which was 
inexorably infli6led on them at the 
end of every year. Dressmakers were 

[4;] 



Cftristmas 15uiIDet0 

also sickened even by the thought of 
Christmas, for just before that beauti- 
ful day every woman wanted a new 
coat or a new waist or a new skirt, 
and everybody wanted it at once, so 
that she would be ready for Christ- 
mas, the result being that the dress- 
makers and all the girls in their shops 
were so driven and so roundly scolded 
by impatient and sharp-tongued cus- 
tomers that it was really difficult on 
the twenty-fifth of December to feel 
charitable and forgiving and kind to 
all. Christmas Day was a palace filled 
with beautiful sights and sounds, but 
the fa6l is that many people never got 
into it, but sat down fagged and de- 
spondent at the door. Clerks in the big 
stores had no good word for Christ- 
mas, notwithstanding its beauty and its 
hallowed associations. Some of them, I 

[5] 



Christmas IBuilDcts 

fear, hated it, especially the young wo- 
men clerks, for the hours were so long 
and the crowds in the store were so 
big and the air was so bad, and so 
many of the people were so unreason- 
able and inconsiderate and crotchety, 
and the cars at evening were so crowd- 
ed and the nights seemed so short, 
that clerks were heard saying to one 
another, "Won't you be glad when 
Christmas is over?'' 

Many children even grew to be 
afraid of Christmas. They dreaded it 
as though it were a huge goblin or 
monster casting a shadow over the 
days which preceded it. The little de- 
livery boys at the grocery stores be- 
came so weary lugging good things 
for Christmas dinners that they could 
not laugh real heartily or enjoy their 
own dinner when Christmas Day came. 

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C{)nstma0 TBuilDers 

It was so late the night before when 
the last basket was delivered that the 
boys fell into a sleep too deep even 
for dreams. They lost the rare and 
radiant pleasure which is the birth- 
right of boys, — the joy of dreaming of 
what a good time is coming on Christ- 
mas. And as for the little girls who 
worked all day long tying up bundles 
in the basements of the great stores, 
they did their best to keep alive in their 
hearts a genuine love of the birthday 
of Jesus, but, alas, in many cases their 
heroic efforts were in vain. " I just hate 
Christmas ! '' said one little girl to an- 
other at the end of a long and weari- 
some day. 

Things have indeed come to a tragic 
pass when a thought of the one most 
splendid and gorgeous day of the en- 
tire year quenches the sparkle in a 

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Cf)ri0tmas TBuilDets 

child's eyes and crushes every feeling 
of ecstatic anticipation out of a child's 
heart. It was indeed a speftacle to 
cause one to stop and ponder, this wide- 
spread shrinking and shuddering at the 
very thought of Christmas, this long- 
drawn sigh of relief when Christmas 
was really over. 

And when I looked around and saw 
how all the days immediately preced- 
ing Christmas were thrown into tumult 
and confusion in which thousands of men 
and women and boys and girls were 
wounded, and many of them hurt with 
an injury that was deep; and when I 
looked at the days succeeding Christ- 
mas and saw them covered with the 
wreckage which Christmas had created, 
the holiday season resembling indeed a 
great battlefield on which a terrific bat- 
tle had been fought, the maimed and 

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Ci)ri0tma0 TBuilDers 

bleeding lying moaning, waiting for the 
healing influences of a new year, I be- 
gan to ask myself, What is the cause 
of this great tragedy, and how can hu- 
manity be delivered from so great a 
scourge ? 

It seemed unendurable that the 
anniversary of the birthday of Jesus 
should be permitted to wreck the hap- 
piness of so many hearts and homes. If 
Christmas stands for anything it stands 
for joy. ^^ Peace and good will'' — this 
is the heart of Christmas. The first 
Christmas was ushered in by a burst 
of song, and the last Christmas to be 
celebrated on our planet will no doubt 
dawn in the same heavenly way. 
*^ Peace on earth, good will toward 
men,'' so the angels sang, and keep on 
singing, and will continue to sing for- 
ever. ''Do not be afraid," said the vis- 

[9] 



Cf)ristma0 TBuiItiers 

itor from the skies, ''for I bring you 
good tidings of great joy/' Fear was 
banished when Jesus came, and so were 
all the dark and dismal spe6lres of the 
mind. The shepherds were glad, and 
so were the aged saints in the temple, 
and so were the scholars from the 
East, and so was everybody — except 
Herod — who came to know of the ar- 
rival of the wonderful baby. Human 
hearts began to sing when Jesus came, 
and nothing must be allowed to reduce 
the volume or the sweetness of the 
music. What is wrong, I asked, with 
Christmas that it has become a sort of 
discord in the harmony of the year.^^ 
Why should the one most lustrous day 
of all the months loom dark and terri- 
ble before so many eyes ? Why should 
pain and sorrow flow like swollen and 
dismal streams from a day created by 

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Cf)ti0tmas 16uiIDer0 

infinite love for making human hearts 
rejoice? 

On investigation I discovered that 
Christmas had simply become too small 
to accommodate the Christmas senti- 
ment of the world. The dimensions of 
the palace v^ere not sufficiently spacious 
to allows all of us to get in without 
treading on one another. One day was 
not large enough for the celebration 
of the birth of Jesus. Twenty-four 
hours were not sufficient to allow 
everybody to pra6lise the precept of 
Jesus, '' It is more blessed to give than 
to receive/' The Christmas heart had 
outgrown the narrow limits of the 
Christmas day, and the problem of the 
world in the first decade of the twen- 
tieth century was, How can Christ- 
mas be enlarged.^ 

. The query raised a host of interest- 



Ct)ri0tma0 IBuilDcrs 

ing questions wherever it was pro- 
pounded. Men began to ask, Is it pos- 
sible to expand the limits of Christmas, 
to extend the dimensions of its golden 
rooms, to widen the area on which it 
stands? For instance, would it be pos- 
sible to make Christmas cover two 
days instead of one ? How would it do 
to say that Christmas is the 24th and 
25th of December, or the 25th and 
26th of December? At first glance one 
would declare that this is quite impos- 
sible, for the reason that Jesus was 
born on the 25th of December and 
therefore we have no right to include 
in our Christmas celebration any other 
day. But right here we face a curious 
and puzzling fa6l. Nobody knows on 
what particular day of December Jesus 
of Nazareth was born. 

The question has always been a 

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matter of dispute, even among those 
who might presumably be best fitted 
to know. He may have been born the 
24th or the 26th, or even the 27th or 
28th. Indeed, for all we know he may 
have been born on any day of our 
month of December, so that we have 
a right to build the palace of Christmas 
on any day of the month, for every 
day is equally eligible for consecration, 
and in order to be sure that we have 
the right day, why not allow Christ- 
mas to cover the entire month ? The 
ancients were so fearful of slighting one 
of the gods that after they had ere6led 
altars to all the gods whose names they 
knew, they sometimes ere6led an altar 
to the unknown god, in this way being 
sure of not omitting from the scope of 
their reverence any god who had a 
right to be included. Why not make 

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Christmas TBuilDers 

sure of having the right day in Decem- 
ber by building the Christmas palace 
upon them all? Thirty-one foundation 
stones instead of one would support a 
really royal stru6lure, and surely a 
palace filling the dimensions of a month 
would be none too large for the com- 
memoration of the most stupendous 
event in human history — the birth of 
Jesus. 

By thus expanding Christmas we 
should not get into such a pet and 
fury as some of us now do. We should 
have time to think about the meaning 
of this great event for which Christmas 
stands, and we should also become 
more accustomed to the exercise of the 
Christmas virtues. As things now are 
we have scarcely time enough to bring 
the Christmas graces to fullest bloom. 
One day is quite too short. To enter- 

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Christmas IBuiIDers 

tain and nourish beautiful and charita- 
ble thoughts, to kindle and foster kind 
and forgiving feelings, to set the heart 
singing and the spirit adoring, for all 
this a single day is hardly long enough. 
If we should think such thoughts every 
day for a week and a month, our minds 
would get accustomed to these high 
altitudes and would not sink back so 
readily to lower and unworthy levels 
of mental and emotional condu6l. If we 
should go right on for a month forgiv- 
ing our enemies and breathing charity 
for all, we might get so habituated to 
these heavenly feelings as never again 
to be willing to give them up. A month 
is none too large as a foundation 
on w^hich to build a mansion spacious 
enough fitly to commemorate the com- 
ing of our Lord. 

Not only would it be better for our- 
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Cfttigtmas TBuilDers 

selves if in some such way Christmas 
might be expanded, but hosts of our 
brothers and sisters would be glad- 
dened by the change. With an entire 
month at one's disposal in which to do 
one's Christmas shopping and to tie up 
one's Christmas packages and to plan 
for one's Christmas dinner, the burden 
of preparation would not fall so sud- 
denly or with such crushing force upon 
those who minister to us, and many 
who are now unable to rejoice in the 
Christmas celebration would be found 
joyfully singing the Christmas song. 
Much of the congestion and the crowd- 
ing of the present would be rendered 
impossible, and Christmas would be- 
come what it ought to be, — a time of 
universal exultation, a season of world- 
wide gratitude and love. 

But when one gets thus far he dis- 



Christmas IBuHDers 

covers that he must go farther. Why 
confine Christmas, some one says, to 
the month of December? No one can 
be certain that Jesus was born in De- 
cember. The New Testament does not 
say so, nor does the New Testament 
contain any evidence by which any 
particular month of the year can be 
proved to be the month of Jesus' birth. 
Plausible arguments have been adduced 
to prove that his birthday came in 
September. 06lober also has put in its 
claim. There are only a few of the 
twelve months which have not stood up 
and demanded recognition and honor 
as the month of the year in which the 
King of Glory came. Months hitherto 
silent will no doubt speak later on. 

It is evidently not God's will that we 
should know in what season of the year 
Jesus came. Not one of his apostles 

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Cf)tistmas IBuilDers 

felt inspired to give information upon 
that interesting but unimportant point. 
God has hidden the key to that secret, 
and nobody knows where to find it. 
This is the Lord's doing, and it ought 
to have a meaning for our eyes. If we 
do not know the month of Jesus' birth 
and if God has so fixed things that 
such knowledge is forever beyond our 
reach, why not build the Christmas 
palace upon the month of January as 
well as upon the month of December? 
A two months' Christmas would be 
better than a one month Christmas, 
and as it is impossible to draw the line 
at the end of January and say thus 
far shall Christmas extend and no 
farther, why not take in February, 
March and April; yes, May, June 
and July, also August, September, Oc- 
tober and November? Are we justi- 

[ 18] 



Christmas TBuilDet^ 

fied in leaving out any of the months 
of the year? Do we not call it the 
year of our Lord ? Why not then let 
him have the w^hole of it as a suit- 
able memorial of his birth ? A Christ- 
mas a year long — that v^ould not 
be too protra6led. Christmas all the 
time — that would be ideal .\ Always 
extending merry greetings, always 
wishing others well, always generous 
in our giving, always humming the 
angels' song, always seeking and 
praising the King — is not that the sort 
of Christmas which this world of ours 
most needs ? 

Certainly it is the kind of Christmas 
most pleasing to the heart of Christ. I 
imagined I heard him saying, as he 
beheld the Christmas which our civi- 
lization had produced: ''I hate your 
Christmas, I am weary of it, because 

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Cf)ristma0 IBuilDcts 

so many of my children are fatigued. 
It is an abomination unto me because 
it has rolled a crushing weight on so 
many hearts. Away with it. It is too 
small. Build me a more spacious Christ- 
mas. Extend the walls of it, until like 
the New Jerusalem it shall lie four- 
square, with three gates on each side, 
so capacious and hospitable that the 
populations of the earth can bring their 
glory into it. Let the Christmas season 
be coterminous with the limits of the 
year.'' 

Now when I heard him say this I 
asked myself the question. Who is suf- 
ficient for this thing .n Who can build 
this stately Christmas ample enough to 
fill a year.^ To make one day bright 
and glorious — even this is sometimes 
hard. We brush away our tears, we 
crush down in our hearts the dark 

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Cl)ri0tmas TBuilDets 

and fearsome feelings, saying, "This 
is Christmas Day. I must to-day be 
cheery, to-day I must wear a smiling 
face ; but to-morrow I will pick up again 
my burden, to-morrow I will cry again. 
For the sake of the children I will pre- 
tend that I am happy — only for a day.'' 
It is by no means easy to make an 
ideal Christmas even one day long. 
Many a time the Christmas crystal 
palace has been shattered to fragments 
by stones hurled by the hands of the 
heart's foes. To build a palace cover- 
ing the extensive area of a year, plant- 
ing a column on each one of the three 
hundred and sixty-five pieces of that 
strange mosaic which men call Time, 
swinging over all a dome full of the 
light and glory of God's face — this is 
an enterprise as difficult as it is stu- 
pendous, but one from which no true 

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Ct)ri0tma0 T5uiIDers 

follower of Jesus ought to shrink. 

When I saw that the old Christmas 
had been really outgrown and realized 
that a new Christmas must be speedily 
constru6led, I set out at once in search 
of architefts and builders competent 
for so vast an undertaking. Who, I 
said , can build a Christmas great enough 
to satisfy and bless a world? Who can 
take the walls of our little Christmas 
and by some magic power extend them 
until they reach around the borders of 
a year ? So I pondered and I was greatly 
troubled, because I knew not where 
to go. Where, I asked, shall wisdom 
be found .^ 

First of all I went to the learned 
men, the men who know what the past 
has been and what the present is. I 
knocked at the doors of all the uni- 
versities, beginning with the oldest and 

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Christmas iBuilDers 

ending with the youngest, but in no 
one of them could I find builders for 
this new and gigantic work. I then 
turned to the market-place where men 
of pra6lical genius are wont to con- 
gregate. I mingled with the captains 
of industry ; I glanced down the lines 
of merchants, bankers, manufa6lurers, 
the men who are doing the largest 
things in our day and generation, and 
I said in a loud voice, ^^ Can any of 
you gentlemen build the world a 
larger Christmas.^'' and not one voice 
replied, "I can.'' 

Thereupon I went to the palaces 
of kings, where live the great and 
mighty of the earth, and when I no- 
ticed the glitter of the crowns and the 
gorgeousness of the sceptres I felt en- 
couraged, for I said: "Here is a royal 
thing to be attempted, and surely royal 

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C!)ri0tmas T5uilDcts 

heads and hearts shall prove equal 
to the task/' But, alas, at the door of 
every royal palace the same word w^as 
given : '' No one here has skill or power 
sufficient to build a larger Christmas/' 

Not yet hopeless I turned to the 
parliaments of the world and looked 
into the august faces of lords and sena- 
tors, of generals and princes, — men 
who have carved their names in the 
body of the life of their time, and I said 
pleadingly : " Can you, or any men you 
know, come and ereft for the world a 
larger Christmas?'' and my question 
brought nothing but silence for an 
answer. 

I then stole into the study of the phi- 
losophers and glided into the groves 
where walk the poets; I passed from 
court to court where learned judges 
sit; I entered boldly into the camp 

[ 24 1 




Jai y cptim Lo4i noLs 
but sitoce for on onewer 



Ct)ri0tma0 TBuilDers 

where army and navy leaders study 
plans for the conquest of the world, 
and everywhere I asked the same baf- 
fling question: ''Can you ere6l for 
mankind a more spacious and more fit- 
ting Christmas ? '' and in every place the 
same answer was returned : ^'Strength 
and wisdom equal to so great a task 
do not dwell with us/' 

And then I turned to the aged. 
Wherever there was a gray head I 
paused and put once more my question. 
Wherever I could find a man of expe- 
rience, of achievement, of earthly wis- 
dom, of renowned skill, of acknow- 
ledged genius, there I propounded my 
interrogation, ever receiving the same 
disappointing reply. And when I had 
travelled round the world and could 
find nowhere any man or woman, high 
or low, rich or poor, great or humble, 

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Cf)ri0tmas iBuilDcrs 

mighty or feeble, who could give me 
what I sought, all at once I remem- 
bered that Christmas is the one cele- 
bration of all the jubilees known in 
human history which cannot be car- 
ried on without the presence of chil- 
dren. I began to refle6l upon the fa6l 
that Christmas is the one holiday which 
cannot be separated from the bright- 
ness of a child's eyes or the music of 
a child's laughter. 

I fell to pondering the fa6l that 
when old folks think of Christmas 
they think of the days when they 
were young. When their children are 
grown and have gone far away from 
home, the parents refresh their hearts 
by thinking of the time when there was 
a Christmas tree in the nursery and the 
glad shout of children exulting over 
their treasures filled all the house. And 

[26] 



Christmas T5uiIDcts 

I remembered also that husbands and 
wives who have no children find their 
hearts going out toward other people's 
children at Christmas time. And when 
I saw in my mind's eye the whole world 
gathered together for the celebration 
of Christmas and beheld a little child 
in the centre, I began to think of the 
day when in Capernaum Jesus set a 
child in the midst of twelve men, say- 
ing: '^Of such is the kingdom of 
heaven/' And when this all flashed 
upon me I started out at once in search 
of a child. "To him undoubtedly/' I 
said, ''has God committed the secret 
of Christmas. He can tell me where 
the Christmas builders can be found." 
I went, I asked, and great was my 
reward. Through a child's eyes I 
looked into the child heart, and there 
standing radiant and beautiful were 

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Cf)ti0tmas TBuilDew 

seven angels, — the angels which are 
the builders of Christmas. These are 
their names : Wonder, Humility, Trust, 
Simplicity, Purity, Joy, and Affe6lion. 
By these the first Christmas was con- 
stru6led, and without these no genuine 
Christmas can be built. These are 
strong angels, they dig deep and they 
mount high. They can build a Christ- 
mas covering the year. 

Christmas is glorious because it is 
the creation of a child. Man is not the 
archite6l of it. It is not a creation of 
human ingenuity or wisdom. It was 
built in the first place by a baby, and 
the glitter of it was simply the reflec- 
tion of the light of a baby's eyes. The 
kings of the earth have often taken 
council together, but they have never 
conceived anything so beautiful as 
Christmas. For a marvel so stupen- 

[ 28 3 



Cf)n0tmas iBuilDers 

dous God fell back upon a child. Chil- 
dren are the magicians of the earth. 
Their wizardry surpasses that of 
magic. The scope and power of their 
necromancy, who can measure? 

There was nothing in the world like 
Christmas till Jesus came. On the day 
of his birth God called the nations to- 
gether and set a little child in their 
midst. From the beginning a full- 
grown man had stood at the centre, 
but the circle gathered round him had 
never been joyous. Sometimes the cen- 
tral man had been a general and some- 
times a king, occasionally he had been 
a scholar and frequently a saint; but 
no matter who he was the circle was 
not enchanted and the heart refused to 
sing. But as soon as a child was placed 
at the centre, humanity began to or- 
ganize itself in unprecedented ways 

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C6ri0tmas TBuilDers 

and to move forward along original 
lines. It began to sing a new song. 
The world had for ages been despond- 
ent and hopeless, and no potentate or 
miracle-worker, how^ever mighty, had 
been able to lift it out of its dark 
mood. But when God took a child and 
set him in the midst, then was the 
world's mouth filled with laughter, 
and all things became new. 

This is the difference then between 
the ancient world and the modern, the 
first had an adult at the centre, the lat- 
ter has a child. Out of the child heart 
— and the child heart is the Christ 
heart — are coming the forces for the 
rebuilding of the world. The problem 
of existence is the task of keeping the 
child in us alive, the heart that won- 
ders, trusts and loves. 

Christmas is not a day, it is a mood. 

C 30 ] 



Cftristmas TauilDcrs 

It is independent of days. We cele- 
brate it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 
any day of the week. Christmas is in- 
different to days. It has nothing to do 
with the almanac. It has nothing to do 
with place. It is as independent of geo- 
graphy as it is of chronology. It has 
no relation to human government or 
even to race or blood. It is an institu- 
tion which can be set up on any soil 
and under the folds of any flag. Christ- 
mas is a spiritual creation and belongs 
to the kingdom of the heart. It is con- 
stru6led by the angels of the heart of 
a child. If it then be a mood, it can be 
extended over a week, a month, a 
year, a lifetime. It can be built upon 
time, upon eternity. If you confine it 
to a day, you miss the meaning of it. 
If you try to cram it into twenty-four 
hours, you crush it and lose the es- 
C 31 ] 



Cf)ti0tmas TBuilDers 

sence of it. The Christmas spirit is the 
only spirit by which men and women 
really live. The Saviour of the world 
has said: You cannot enter the king- 
dom of heaven— and that is his name 
for Christmas — except you become 

''As a Little Child r 



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